Well, it seems like it's well in hand, so... if there's nothing else, meeting adjourned.

- No!
- (POUNDS TABLE)

Pardon me?

Uh, we can't adjourn.

This is Professor Legasov of the Kurchatov Institute.

Professor, if you have any concerns, feel free to address them with me later.

I can't. I am sorry. I'm so sorry.

Page three, the section on casualties.

Uh...

"A fireman was severely burned on his hand by a chunk of smooth, black mineral on the ground, outside the reactor building."

Smooth, black mineral... graphite.

There's-There's graphite on the ground.

Well, there was a... a tank explosion. There's debris.

- Of what importance...?
- There's only one place in the entire facility where you will find graphite: inside the core.

If there's graphite on the ground outside, it means it wasn't a control system tank that exploded.

It was the reactor core.
It's open! (INHALES)

Um, Comrade Shcherbina?

Comrade General Secretary, I can assure you that Professor Legasov is mistaken.

Bryukhanov reports that the reactor core is intact.

- And as for the radiation...
- Yes, . roentgen, which, by the way, is not the equivalent of one chest X-ray, but rather chest X-rays.

That number's been bothering me for a different reason, though.

It's also the maximum reading on low-limit dosimeters.

They gave us the number they had.

I think the true number is much, much higher.

If I'm right, this fireman was holding the equivalent of four million chest X-rays in his hand.

Professor Legasov, there's no place for alarmist hysteria...

It's not alarmist if it's a fact!

Well, I don't hear any facts at all.

All I hear is a man I don't know engaging in conjecture in direct contradiction to what has been reported by party officials.

I'm, uh... I apologize.

I didn't mean, uh...

(CLEARS THROAT) Please, may I express my concern as calmly and as respectfully as I...

- Professor Legasov...
- GORBACHEV: Boris.

I will allow it.

LEGASOV: Um...

An RBMK reactor uses uranium as fuel.

Every atom of U- is like a bullet traveling at nearly the speed of light, penetrating everything in its path: woods, metal, concrete, flesh.

Every gram of U- holds over a billion trillion of these bullets.

That's in one gram.

Now, Chernobyl holds over three million grams, and right now, it is on fire.

Winds will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent, rain will bring them down on us.

That's three million billion trillion bullets in the... in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat.

Most of these bullets will not stop firing for years.

Some of them, not for , years.

Yes, and, uh, this concern stems entirely from the description of a rock?

Yes.

Hmm.

Comrade Shcherbina...

I want you to go to Chernobyl.

You take a look at the reactor, you personally, and you report directly back to me.

A wise decision, comrade General Secretary...

GORBACHEV: And take Professor Legasov with you.

SHCHERBINA: Uh... (CHUCKLES)

Forgive me, comrade General Secretary, but I...

Do you know how a nuclear reactor works?

- No.
- GORBACHEV: No.

Well, then how will you know what you're looking at?

Meeting adjourned.

(HELICOPTER BLADES WHUPPING)

How does a nuclear reactor work?

- What?
- SHCHERBINA: It's a simple question.

It's hardly a simple answer.

Of course, you presume I'm too stupid to understand.

So I'll restate: Tell me how a nuclear reactor works, or I'll have one of these soldiers throw you out of the helicopter.

A nuclear reactor makes electricity with steam.

The steam turns a turbine which generates electricity.

Where a typical power plant makes steam by burning coal, a nuclear plant...

In a nuclear plant, we use something called fission.

We take an unstable element like uranium , which has too many neutrons.

- A neutron is, uh...
- The bullet.

Yes, the bullet.

So, bullets are flying off of the uranium.

Now... if we put enough uranium atoms close together, the bullets from one atom will eventually strike another atom.

The force of this impact splits that atom apart, releasing a tremendous amount of energy, fission.

- And the graphite?
- Ah, yes.

The neutrons are actually traveling so fast... we call this "flux"... it's relatively unlikely that the uranium atoms will ever hit one another.

In RBMK reactors, we surround the fuel rods with graphite to moderate, slow down, the neutron flux.

Good.

I know how a nuclear reactor works.

Now I don't need you.

(HELICOPTER BLADES WOMPING)

(NOISY CHATTERING)

(VOICES CLAMORING)

- Can you help me? I need to find my husband.
- No. Not now.

- Mikhail!
- Lyudmilla.

- (INFANT SCREAMING)
- Take her.

Take her away from here, please.

- Get away from them! You want to get sick? Go!
- MIKHAIL: Oh my God.

Please take her, please take her.

- (INFANT SCREAMING)
- Please take her, please.

Please! Please!

Please take her!

Excuse me, I am Vasily Ignatenko's wife.

He's a fireman. Ignatenko.

Ignatenko, Sixth Paramilitary Fire and Rescue Unit.

I need to find him. Please.

MAJOR BUROV: Ignatenko...

He's being transported by helicopter to Moscow.

Hospital number six.

Why, is he all right? Can I see him?

You want to see him? Go to Moscow.

But they're not letting us leave here.

Tell them Major Burov allows it.

- Oh. When are they taking him?
- Now.

(HELICOPTER BLADES WHUPPING)

PILOT: We're approaching the power plant.

LEGASOV (MUTTERS): What have they done?

Can you see inside?

I don't have to. Look.

That's graphite on the roof.

The whole building's been blown open.

The core's exposed!

I can't see how you can tell that from here.

Oh, for God's sakes.

Look at that glow!

That's radiation ionizing the air!

Well, if we can't see, we don't know.

Get us directly over the building!

- Boris, if we fly...
- Don't you use my name!

...directly over an open reactor, we'll be dead within a week!

Dead!

PILOT: Sir?

Get us over that building, or I'll have you shot!

(INDISTINCT RADIO TRANSMISSION)

If you fly directly over that core, I promise you, by tomorrow morning, you'll be begging for that bullet.

(GRUNTS)

(MUFFLED CHATTER, LAUGHTER)

Perhaps if you came back another day.

Just wonderful.

KHOMYUK: Deputy Secretary Garanin.

Ulana Khomyuk of the Byelorussian Institute for Nuclear Energy.

What a pleasure.

- Let me introduce...
- I'm here about Chernobyl.

Such a lovely time.

- Visit again soon.
- CHULKOV: I will. Thank you.

GARANIN: I must tell you, this is why no one likes scientists.

When we have a disease to cure, where are they?

In a lab, noses in their books, and so Grandma dies.

But when there isn't a problem, they're everywhere, spreading fear.

- I know about Chernobyl.
- Oh?

I know that the core is either partially or completely exposed.

- Whatever that means.
- And that if you don't immediately issue iodine tablets and then evacuate this city, hundreds of thousands of people are going to get cancer, and God knows how many more will die.

Yes, very good.

There has been an accident at Chernobyl, but I've been assured there is no problem.

Smothering the core will put the fire out, but the temperature will eventually increase...

LEGASOV: Believe me, I'm perfectly aware.

But I estimate at least a month before it melts through the lower concrete pad,

- which gives us time...
- No, you don't have a month.

You have approximately two days.

Yes, the fuel would take a month to reach the concrete pad here.

But first... it's going to burn through the biological shield here by Tuesday.

And when it does, it's going to hit these tanks...bubbler pools, reservoirs...

Reservoirs for the ECS. I understand your concern, but I confirmed it with plant personnel.

- The tanks are nearly empty.
- No, they were nearly empty.

Each of these points here, here, and here all drain to the bubbler pools.

I'm guessing that every pipe in the building ruptured.

And then there are those fire engines that I saw on the way in.

The fire hoses are still connected.

They've been gushing water into the structure this whole time.

The tanks are full.

The tanks are full.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) _

(DOOR OPENS)

I have ten minutes, then I'm back on the phone apologizing to our friends, apologizing to our enemies.

Our power comes from the perception of our power.

Do you understand the damage this has done?

Do you understand what's at stake?

Boris.

Professor Legasov will deliver our briefing.

There is some good news.

The air drops are working to douse the fire.

There's been a reduction in radionuclide emissions, but the fire will not be extinguished for at least another two weeks.

There is also an additional problem.

Nuclear fuel doesn't turn cold simply because it is not on fire.

In fact, the temperature will likely rise as a result of the blanket of sand we've dropped.

The uranium will melt the sand, creating a kind of lava which will begin to melt down through the shield below.

You have made lava?

I anticipated this.

I believed there was time to reinforce this lower concrete pad before the lava reached the earth and contaminated the groundwater.

But as it turned out, I was worried about the wrong thing.

Uh, um...

It was my understanding that these large water tanks under the reactor were essentially empty.

This is Ulana Khomyuk of the Byelorussian Institute.

Thanks to her insight, we are now aware that the tanks are, in fact, full.

Of water. Why is that a problem, professor?

(CLEARS THROAT)

When the lava enters these tanks, it will instantly superheat and vaporize approximately , cubic meters of water, causing a significant thermal explosion.

How significant?

We estimate between two and four megatons.

Everything within a -kilometer radius will be completely destroyed, including the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl.

The entirety of the radioactive material in all of the cores will be ejected at force and dispersed by a massive shock wave, which will extend approximately kilometers and likely be fatal to the entire population of Kiev as well as a portion of Minsk.

The release of radiation will be severe and will impact all of Soviet Ukraine,

Latvia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and most of East Germany.

What do you mean "impact"?

For much of the area, a nearly permanent disruption of the food and water supply, a steep increase in the rates of cancer and birth defects.

I don't know how many deaths there will be, but many.

For Byelorussia and the Ukraine, "impact" means completely uninhabitable for a minimum of years.

There are more than million people living in Byelorussia and Ukraine.

Sixty, yes.

And how long before this happens?

Approximately to hours.

But we may have a solution.

We can pump the water from the tanks.

Unfortunately, the tanks are sealed shut by a sluice gate, and the gate can only be opened manually from within the duct system itself.

So we need to find three plant workers who know the facility well enough to enter the basement here, find their way through all these duct ways, get to the sluice gate valve here, and give us the access we need to pump out the tanks.

Of course, we will need your permission.

My permission for what?

Uh, the water in these ducts, the level of radioactive contamination...

They'll likely be dead in a week.

We're asking for your permission to kill three men.

Well...

Comrade Legasov...

(CLEARS THROAT) all victories inevitably come at a cost.

(DOGS PANTING)

(WIND BLOWING)

LEGASOV: And open the sluice gate valve... here.

The valve will be difficult to operate, so we'll need three men who will need to know the basement layout.

And, of course, any volunteers will be rewarded.

A yearly stipend of rubles.

And, uh, for those of you working in reactors one and two, promotions.

Why are reactors one and two still operating at all?

My friend was a security guard that night, and, uh, she's now dying.

And we've all heard about the firemen.

And now you want us to swim underneath a burning reactor?

Do you even know how contaminated it is?

(CLEARS THROAT)

I... I don't have an exact number.

You don't need an exact number to know if it'll kill us.

But you can't even tell us that.

Why should we do this? For what, rubles?

(MURMURS IN AGREEMENT)

You'll do it because it must be done.

You'll do it because nobody else can.

And if you don't, millions will die.

If you tell me that's not enough, I won't believe you.

This is what has always set our people apart.

A thousand years of sacrifice in our veins.

And every generation must know its own suffering.

I spit on the people who did this, and I curse the price I have to pay.